The Art Book Tradition in Twentieth-Century Europe [Hardcover]

Investigating the complex history of visual arts engagement with literature, this collection demonstrates that the art of the book is a fully interdisciplinary and distinctly modern form. The essays in the collection develop new critical approaches to the analysis of twentieth-century bookworks and explore ways in which European writers and painters challenged the boundary between visual and linguistic expression in the content, production, and physical form of books. The Art Book Tradition in Twentieth-Century Europeoffers a detailed examination of word-image relations in forms ranging from the livre dartiste to personal diaries and almanacs. It analyzes innovative attempts to challenge familiar hierarchies between texts and images, to fuse different expressive media, and to reconceptualize traditional notions of ekphrasis. Giving consideration to the material qualities of books, the works discussed in this collection also test and celebrate the act of reading, while locating it in the context of other sensory experiences. Essays examine works by Dufy, Matisse, Beckett, Kandinsky, Braque, and Ponge, among other European artists and writers active during the twentieth century.Contents: Introduction, Kathryn Brown; Dufy draws Apollinaire: illustration and commemoration in the livre dartiste, Peter Read; Enacting beauty: Baudelaire, Matisse, and Les Fleurs du mal, Kathryn Brown; Out in the open with Georges Braque and Saint-John Perse: Lordre des oiseaux, Neil Cox; Bun-Ching Lams and Samuel Becketts Quatre Po?ms/Four Songs: music, image, text, Derval Tubridy; Unreal forms: Joan Pon?? and Joan Fusters Exploraci?? de lombra and Joan Pon?? and Luis Goytisolos Devoraciones, Montserrat Roser-i-Puig; Word and image in times of crisis: the bookworks of Arnold Daghani, Peter Z. Malkin, and Ian C. Dengler, Deborah Schultz; Wassily Kandinskys animated page: The Blue Rider almanac as a work of art, Christopher Short; Po?sie plastique? The competitionlc…